slide 1: How to Choose Authentic Photos
How using authentic relevant imagery helps marketers grow faster.
+
Micah Cohen
Director of Growth Twenty20
slide 2: Authenticity is vital
for your brand.
slide 3: Consumers buy from
brands that feel authentic.
Communicate honestly
Don’t let customers down
Always act with integrity
Have brand recognition
Be more appealing/exciting
than competitors
Be popular among my peers
0 25 50 75 100
It’s important for brands to:
Buyer preferences based on a survey of 12000 across 12 markets | November 2014
MarketingCharts.com | Data Source: Cohn Wolfe
slide 4: New York Times
For example a study from Cornell University
showed that when menu items had
geographically or culturally influenced names
i.e. traditional Cajun beans or Grandma’s
chili patrons ordered them more and said
they tasted better.
Several studies have shown that
authenticity - real or perceived -
can directly affect sales.
Authenticity affects your bottom line.
slide 5: New York Times
Photos are the way to express your authenticity.
1.8 billion photos are shared
everyday on Snapchat Facebook
Instagram WhatsApp.
As the major method of judging
info on the web and social media
photos are the way
to express your authenticity.
slide 6: How to quickly spot
authentic photos
•
Technical execution
•
Trace of humanness
•
Relatable
slide 7: Good technical execution
Exposure
The amount of light
that enters the
camera through the
lens.
1
Focus
Composition
How sharp or blurry
the subject you are
photographing is.
Where in the frame
of the photo you
place your subject.
slide 8: Exposure Check.
Focus Check.
Composition Check.
rule of thirds approved
We’ve all seen photographs
that nail basic technique:
slide 9: But don’t obsess over quality.
slide 10: Tell a human story.
2
slide 11: Just because a photo nails the technical
component doesn’t mean it’s effective.
slide 12: What makes the difference
The human element.
slide 13: Exposure Overexposed on the face.
Focus Soft.
Composition A bit off.
This photo is technically imperfect:
But emotionally
It feels authentic…like looking over
at a friend sitting in a coffeeshop.
slide 14: Which tells the most human story
Test: side by side comparison
A B C
slide 15: Photos that connect to your customer’s lives always win.
A B C
Trace of humanness
slide 16: Photos must be relevant and
relatable to your audience.
Be Relevant.
3
slide 17: Imagine your customer’s world.
Where do they live
What is around them
What products are familiar to them
What is the weather like there
Playing a modified game of
whodunit is the best way to learn
the nuances of your
consumers’ media consumption
habits so that you can fit right in.
“Who is my audience”
slide 18: If so you’d fail with this ad.
Your consumers aren’t
riding in taxis. They’re
calling Uber Lyft on
their smartphones and
renting rooms off Airbnb
while Snapchatting their
friends about what they
just saw on Instagram.
Targeting millenials
slide 19: Be relatable to your
audience’s style.
People crave consuming user-
generated content on social
media.
Use real-world photos in your
marketing
•
Take photos of employees and
activities around your office
•
License authentic UGC from
real-world photographers
slide 20: •
Be technically good
KEY TAKEAWAYS
•
Have at trace of humanness
•
Be relatable
Micah Cohen
Director of Growth Twenty20
micahtwenty20.com
An authentic photo should: